通用電氣如何從數據中創收10億

The square, squat robot scuttles across the stage on command, pausing next to a massive model depicting a locomotive engine.

一個四四方方、矮墩墩的機器人按照指令在臺上碎步疾行，然後在一個巨大的機車發動機模型旁邊停了下來。

Its sensors probe the surroundings, collecting and analyzing temperatures. Detecting an unusually high reading, it calls for help from a field service agent. When his human colleague arrives, the robot sends its report to his smart eyeglasses, offering step-by-step repair instructions it downloaded from a cloud database.

它的傳感器在探測周圍環境，收集溫度信息並進行分析。檢測到某一數據過高時，它便呼叫一位現場服務人員前來幫助。在它的人類同事到達後，機器人將報告發送到此人佩戴的智能眼鏡上，交給他一份從雲數據庫下載的維修步驟說明。

Meet the “Guardian,” a new breed of service robot known as an autonomous ground vehicle envisioned by General Electric’s intelligent systems research laboratory.

這就是新型服務機器人“Guardian”（保護者），一種陸地自主行駛車輛（Autonomous Ground Vehicle，簡稱AGV），由通用電氣公司（General Electric，簡稱GE）旗下的智能系統研究實驗室設計。

The demonstration scenario shared during a New York briefing suggests a future in which robots handle dull, dirty and dangerous work across a range of health care, manufacturing and field service applications while humans handle duties requiring more advanced cognitive and fine-motor skills.

在美國紐約召開的一次簡報會上，GE向大家進行了這番演示，以此預言了這樣的未來：在醫療、製造和現場服務等領域，機器人將會負責處理一系列枯燥、骯髒和危險的工作，而人類則負責那些需要高級認知技能和精細動作技能的任務。

For GE, this is the next phase of the “Industrial Internet,” its in-house phrase for what others call the Internet of things—the ever-growing collection of connected devices “talking” to businesses with valuable data.

這就是GE所說的“工業互聯網”（Industrial Internet）——外界又稱物聯網——的下一個階段，將有越來越多的聯網設備向企業提供有價值的數據。

This phenomenon is worth an estimated $1 billion in incremental revenue for the company this year alone, mostly in the form of advanced asset performance management services, according to GE’s top executive. (GE’s services group generates $45 billion annually.) Last year, the strategy inspired GE’s $105 million investment in Pivotal, a data analytics company spun out from EMC.

據GE最高管理層透露，僅今年一年，這一現象就預計可爲公司增加10億美元的營收，其中大部分將來自於先進的資產性能管理服務。（GE的服務部門每年可創450億美元的營收）。在這一策略的推動下，GE去年向易安信（EMC）拆分出來的數據分析公司Pivotal投資了1.05億美元。

“If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to wake up this morning as a software and analytics company,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt told 100s of customers and analysts attending the third “Minds + Machines” summit. “This change is happening in front of us. GE wants to be your partner.”

在第三屆“智慧+機器”（Minds + Machines）年度峯會上，公司董事長兼首席執行官傑夫o伊梅爾特對出席會議的數百位客戶和分析師說：“如果昨晚你睡覺時還是一家工業公司，那麼今天醒來就會變成一家軟件和數據分析公司。這種變化正在我們眼前發生。GE想要成爲你們的合作伙伴。”

Using its Predix technology, GE already captures 50 million data points collected and communicated by 10 million sensors installed on $1 trillion worth of equipment ranging from medical imaging systems to locomotives to jet engines, Immelt said.

伊梅爾特表示，憑藉公司的Predix技術，GE已經獲得了5,000萬個數據點，由安裝在各種設備上的1,000萬部傳感器收集並傳送數據，這些設備類型廣泛，醫學成像系統、機車、噴氣發動機均囊括在內，價值總計達1萬億美元。

Right now, that information is helping GE customers drive higher operational efficiencies, predictive maintenance and diagnostics that can reduce downtime, and synchronized fleet management applications.

現在，這些信息正在幫助GE的客戶提高運營效率，進行預測性維護與診斷來減少停機時間，以及應用於機隊管理的同步化。

Kate Johnson, vice president and commercial officer for sales and marketing at GE, offers the example of an offshore oil rig operator that recently averted a potential failure after detecting changes in production performance data. The savings: $7.5 million in lost production by replacing the part proactively.

GE副總裁兼銷售與市場商務官凱特o約翰遜舉了一個例子：最近，一家海上石油鑽井平臺運營商在動態生產數據中檢測到了異常狀況，從而避免了潛在的事故。通過及時更換問題部件，該公司避免了750萬美元的損失。

Elsewhere, wind farm operator generates 4% more power from turbines it manages in collaboration with GE; and AirAsia Group stands to save up to $10 million in fuel costs this year by using Predix to reroute flight paths and optimize air traffic flow, based (among other things) on the performance data it collects about GE jet engines. “This data has been available for safety applications, now these livestreams could be used for flight planning,” said Rajesh Gill, group chief pilot technical and efficiency, AirAsia.

其他例子還包括：通過與GE合作管理渦輪機，風力發電場運營商意昂集團（）將發電量提高了4%；根據GE收集到的噴氣發動機性能數據，亞洲航空集團（AirAsia Group）利用Predix來變更飛行路徑和優化空中交通流量，有望在今年節省多達1,000萬美元的燃油成本。亞航集團飛行員技術和效率主管拉傑什o吉爾說：“這些數據一直用於安全領域，現在這些實時數據流還可用來規劃航線。”

By the end of 2014, there will be more than 40 applications and services based on GE’s platform but the company hopes to spur many others by making Predix available to businesses interested in developing industry-specific solutions.

到2014年年底時，市面上將有40多項基於GE平臺的應用與服務，但是該公司希望Predix能夠面向所有有意開發工業解決方案的企業，以便激勵更多的公司參與其中。

What’s more GE is working with Cisco Systems and Intel to make sure support for its technology is included in future routers and other connected devices. To address security concerns, GE’s Wurldtech division is testing a firewall designed for the unique protection considerations of sensors, substations, trains and other industrial equipment.

另外，GE還在與思科系統公司（Cisco Systems）和英特爾公司（Intel）攜手合作，確保未來的路由器及其他聯網設備支持自己的技術。爲了解決安全問題，GE旗下的網絡安全子公司Wurldtech正在測試一種防火牆，這種防火牆將專門用於爲傳感器、變電站、火車及其他工業設備提供特殊保護。

With more than 50 billion connected machines predicted by 2020, the biggest challenge to GE’s industrial Internet strategy isn’t the technology it’s the processes reengineering that must take place not just to make sense of data but to take meaningful action on it, noted several GE customers during the briefing. “Remember the human interface. All this means nothing if you don’t have someone extracting this data to make it reality,” AirAsia’s Gill said.

在這次的簡報會上，GE的幾位客戶指出，鑑於2020年的聯網機器數量預計將達500億臺，GE的工業互聯網戰略所面臨的最大挑戰不是技術，而是必要的流程再造，這不僅是爲了理解數據，也是爲了根據數據採取有意義的行動。亞航的吉爾說：“別忘了其中人的因素。如果沒有人來提取數據，從而讓工業互聯網成爲現實，那麼這一切都是空談。”